How to be Efficient Through Sage 300 CRE Desktop - Timberline Desktop Environment

hello and welcome to the first of many
tag swat videos you're watching a video
on how to be more efficient using Sage
300 cre desktop my name is seth meyers
and the one of the sage certified timber
line consultants at tag in La Jolla
California in this video I'm gonna
highlight three key features of Sage 300
cre desktop which include its ability to
be a task starter a source for gathering
information and its ability to be easily
customized for your job first let's have
a quick intro into the three parts of
the desktop as you can see it's divided
into three main panes the leftmost pane
is called my tasks this is the area that
you customize for your specific job and
we'll go into more detail about that
shortly the middle pane is just called
tasks and this shows all of the
applications and their setups tasks
inquiries and reports that you've been
given access to through security the
third right pane is called home page and
this is where you can display different
internet pages Crystal Reports or you
could just have it be blank each section
can be turned off by clicking the X in
the upper right corner of that
respective section for example if I
wanted to close the tasks all I do is
click the X and it disappears and as you
notice the home page resizes to fit in
the event you turn off a pane and you
want it back it's very easy you go up to
view and then choose that particular
task or pane if you're new to your job
your manager may have set up a default
desktop screen for you which you will
know how to modify when this video is
finished in the event your desktop
hasn't been customized for your position
you will likely just have a default
desktop let's pretend that we are
creating a new desktop environment first
click on file and then choose new
configuration you'll notice this sage
supplies a few common defaults and it's
based on the different types of
industries commercial resident
specialty and then the types of jobs
such as AP clerk controller or job Cost
Accountant pick the one that you want
and then you can start making it ears in
this case I'm just going to choose the
accounts payable account and then click
OK
depending on which ones you choose
you'll notice that in the my tasks it
pre-fills
things like your tasks common inquiries
or reports and we'll go into more
discussion about that later there are a
few key things to note about desktops
task pane the task pane generally shows
all the applications you have security
access to however there's a few yellow
folders that only appear here in desktop
the first one is called this common
tasks and this includes general tasks
such as being able to switch to
different company folders or look at
your printouts or even running the file
tools tasks or even file doctor again
only if you've been given permission the
next one is called additional tools this
is a spot where you can load different
workflow centers or Reconciliation tools
again specific to the apps you've been
given access to the next one is called
sage Timberline office documents these
are all of the PDF documents that are
shipped with Timberline office whether
it be year-end guides installation
guides crystal guides or even a guide on
how to set up security next one is
called sage Timberline office on the web
and as you'll notice by the titles to
the web pages they're all specific to
Timberline office and the last one is
called sage on the web which again as
you know this is specific to just sage
one of the key features of desktop is
its ability to allow you to start any
task inquiry or report in Sage 300 CRE
either through the my tasks or tasks
panes this allows you to start a task
which will lock one application license
when you finish that task and then when
you finish that license lock is removed
this helps your office staff by not
having multiple applications locked at
any given time
simply because an applications been left
open but not currently being used as I
mentioned earlier any tasks inquiries or
reports you have been granted security
access to are shown in the tasks pane if
we expand here will notice that we have
tasks setups in queries and reports
underneath tasks for example we have
enter pending invoices the first option
and when we go to tasks inside accounts
payable it's also enter pending invoices
now that we're familiar with the overall
layout of desktop we can begin
customizing this to meet our specific
needs a key feature a desktop is the
ability to create what are called groups
the groups are a way to just organize
similar tasks or documents or other
resources there's no limits to the
number of groups you can set and if you
have groups that you don't use regularly
you can minimize them like you see here
underneath the my enquiries my reports
or my tasks anywhere inside this my
tasks if you right-click with your mouse
and choose add new group you'll get a
window that asks for that particular
groups name I'm just gonna call it
common tasks then I'll click OK and that
group is now created you can easily move
groups up and down by holding your left
mouse button and dragging the item and
as you can see it rearranges them again
I can move it down to the bottom and
it's the last one showing the next step
is actually adding the items to our
group there's a couple of different ways
but I found that the easiest is to just
do drag and drop so for example if we go
to accounts payable and I say I'm going
to put the end or pending invoices
inside my common tasks if you hold your
left mouse button down and drag it over
to the group and let up you'll see that
particular task you'll notice that as
you add tasks or even reports it shows
you the application and then what the
name of that thing is that you're doing
whether it be
a task a report or an inquiry for
example if we take a report and we
choose the invoice aging and we drag
that up you'll notice that it shows the
applications accounts payable the
submenu insight is cash management and
their aging invoice aging report is the
one that we're adding okay
so that's easy how about adding a web
page we'll right-click somewhere inside
the group we'll go to add to my tasks in
box number one will select web link
we'll click the select button let's add
Google click OK box number three we can
give it a title I'm just gonna go ahead
and call it Google and then box number
four if you hadn't chosen the group when
you were adding it will give you the
choice to choose it now I'm just gonna
choose common tasks again and we'll say
ok as you notice the website shows up
when you click on it it opens over on
the right side and all of these tabs can
be closed just by clicking the X over on
the right side but what if you have a
document that you want to add say
there's a PDF that you look at on a
regular basis right click somewhere
inside the group choose add to my tasks
we'll choose a file and click select
we'll find that particular document that
we want in this case I've got a PDF on
the desktop we select it say open I'm
gonna go ahead and call it retainage and
again leave it in common tasks and Jen
just say ok and as you notice it has the
normal icon the same logic can be
applied if you have a Word document or
Excel document that brings up another
question
what if you have to constantly go into
an Excel spreadsheet well you may not
necessarily have the same spreadsheet
but you're always going to in Excel can
you add Excel as a shortcut definitely
again we'll right-click inside the group
we'll choose add to my tasks will leave
it as file our application because we
need to find the executable for that
program again we'll hit select
we'll navigate to where that particular
program is in this case it's Microsoft
Office and I'm going to choose Excel
I'll leave the title and I'll say ok and
as you notice the icon for the program
does show up over here on the left side
and when you click on it it opens the
application the last type of shortcut
that you may want to put in a group is a
shortcut to a folder if you have one
particular folder where you have a lot
of documents being stored on a regular
basis and updated you probably don't
want to go through the my computer icon
or Windows Explorer why not just create
a shortcut here first minimize your
desktop go to the folder that you
normally would go to and in this case
I'm just going to create a shortcut
based off this software one when you
create a shortcut you right click on the
folder that you want and in my case I'm
just gonna send it to the desktop and I
have a shortcut I'll close this I'll go
back to my desktop and again I'll
right-click inside my group
I'll choose add to my tasks click the
select button navigate to the desktop
where that shortcut is choose my
shortcut click open I'm gonna leave the
title there and then say ok as you
notice there's a little folder icon here
for my shortcut and when I click on it
it opens the folder now there's one
caveat that you have to remember when
you create a shortcut if you
accidentally delete that shortcut your
link over on the my tasks will not work
and you'll get an error message for
example if I delete this shortcut I go
back to desktop and I try and click on
it this message pops up saying that it's
not found in that case I would suggest
removing it from your tasks you can
always add shortcuts back later so we've
talked about the customizing of the my
tasks section based on your part
other job and what you do in your job
the next part of the video covers the
home page in their desktop application
you probably notice when we created this
new desktop the same CRE website is what
came up is the default web page so some
of you may be asking is this actually
the Internet and it is you could type in
google.com up here and it will go to the
Google Website why is this important
well if you think about how often you
search the internet or you might have
maybe a bank site that you go to when
you're reconciling your bank accounts or
as web pages can be added as your
default web page to this desktop so that
every time you start desktop that
website shows up one thing to remember
is some websites do have various levels
of security or maybe visual aids like
pop-ups and those don't show in desktop
so some pages you won't be able to add
so let's change our Sade CRE website to
google.com it's actually pretty easy if
we go up to tools and we choose options
on the bottom side here it says current
homepage we're gonna choose the select
button will leave it as web link and say
okay and I'm just gonna go ahead and
type in Google com I'll say okay then
okay one more time now every time I open
desktop Google will be what I see here
I'm a controller and I want to see all
the information for all of my jobs I
don't want to have to run a report
Timberline allows you to put in a
crystal report again we'll go up to
tools we'll choose options I'll choose
select and this time we'll change it to
be crystal report and then we'll say
okay if we go into the commercial
construction will see that these are
based on different job tasks like an AP
person or a job cost person or even a
project manager in this case I'm gonna
go ahead and just choose executive all
jobs overview and then say open and then
we'll click OK and our home page will
refresh as you notice it's not instant
it's trying to do all the calculations
and generating graphs like you would
normally have in a crystal report so you
might notice
as you play with some of the different
crystal reports that some of them are a
little slower than others
there isn't an autosave in desktops so
every time you make a change no matter
how small it may seem to you you'll want
to go ahead and save simply click on
file save configuration as and then give
it a name so in this case I'm just gonna
call it template one and then say save
and you're done the next time the open
desktop this is what you'll see all of
your tasks underneath the my tasks and
in this particular case a crystal report
will open up entitled all jobs overview
as you can see Sage 300 cieariy desktop
has a lot of flexibility as well as the
ability to make your job easier and more
efficient through shortcuts and on
demand reports all centrally located you
can keep desktop open all day and even
surf the web without tying up any
timberline licenses you will find many
of your co-workers will be much happier
with you now that they can get into the
applications more often since licenses
won't be tied up simply because somebody
left an application open I hope this
video has been informative and helpful
to you check out our other training
videos as we create them in the next few
months if you have any ideas or
questions that you would like to pose
please don't hesitate to contact us via
email at Timberline at Team tag dotnet
thank you very much and have a wonderful
day